What She Says, What She Means

Submission 33,141

About

What She Says, What She Means is a series of posts on Tumblr which juxtapose the phrase "I'm fine" with a humorous translation describing the statement's implicit meaning. The posts are often used to make joke confessions regarding a specific fandom.

Origin

On March 31st, 2013, Tumblr user andogynous^[1] submitted a post with text "What she says: I'm fine, really. / What she means: Please come to Brazil" (shown below). Within three years, the post gained over 34,700 notes.

Spread

On September 3rd, 2013, Tumblr user ichikun^[5] published a post with a similar setup, in which the translation "what she means" describes a feeling of uneasiness towards the ending of the 2001 Hayao Miyazaki animated film Spirted Away. Within two years, the posted garnered upwards of 219,000 notes.

On November 8th, 2014, the stevebuscemi4prez Tumblr blog posted a variation of the joke praising actor Steve Buscemi, which received more than 83,000 notes over the next year.

On January 16th, 2015, Tumblr user aobasyellowsocks-official^[6] published a "what she says" post^[3] referencing The Brady Bunch-inspired "skule" meme (shown below). On January 18th, the Meme Documentation Tumblr reblogged the post.

On April 29th, Tumblr user homuratrash^[2] published a "what she says" post featuring a verbose description of a Spongebob Squarepants episode. In the next three months, the post gained over 125,000 notes (shown below, left). On June 3rd, Tumblr user kotoricchi^[4] posted an example containing a referencing a moderator for the Tumblr blog SFRJ-News (shown below, right). In one month, the post received upwards of 10,100 notes.